Young Libyans have mobilized for Saturday's municipal elections, the first time many will vote in the fractured North African country where polls have been rare since Moammar al-Gaddafi's ouster in 2011 overthrow.
"Elections are a new concept here," said Radouane Erfida, 21, from Misrata, as he and other volunteers eagerly gave out leaflets and engaged with potential voters ahead of polling day.
"To help people accept and understand the process, we need awareness campaigns," he told AFP.
The vast, oil-rich country of seven million people has struggled to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Gaddafi.
Libya remains divided between the Government of National Unity (GNU) based in the capital Tripoli and a rival administration in the east.
Although being held in fewer than half of the country's municipalities -- 58 out of 142 -- it is the first election in a decade to be held simultaneously in both eastern and western Libya.
Nearly 190,000 people are registered to vote in the areas where polling will take place.
In Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, walls are covered with campaign posters of the candidates hoping to be elected.
"Your voice builds your municipality," reads one placard put up by the High National Election Commission, which staged its own campaign to encourage a high turnout.
For Mohammed al-Moher, a 25-year-old volunteer, restoring hope in Libya's democratic process is essential.
- 'Revive people's dreams'-
"We are trying, through these elections and those to come, to revive people's dreams... and to ensure that they go to the polls again and choose candidates whose vision matches theirs," he told AFP.
Libya held its first free and fair elections in 2012. After two elections considered to have been successful, parliamentary elections in June 2014 were marred by a very low turnout because of ongoing violence.
There have been several municipal elections between 2019 and 2021 in a handful of cities, including Tripoli in the West.
Presidential and parliamentary elections that had aimed to unify the fractured country were scheduled for late 2021 but then postponed indefinitely.
The GNU is headed by Abdulhamid Dbeibah, while in the east, the parliament under the rival administration is based in Tobruk.
"We are tired of seeing old people monopolize politics. It's time young people became involved in something other than the battlefield," said Nouh Zagout, 29, a candidate in Misrata.
The country's youth "have both the knowledge and the necessary ability to make a significant contribution to political life", the pharmacist said.
But young Libyans who aspired to a seat at the table "are subject to a lot of criticism, particularly from their elders who judge them incapable of leading these institutions".
Such attitudes, he said, are precisely what motivated him to stand for election.
